I've been starting a lot of seeds indoors the past few weeks. I think that
for most of them it would be safe to move them outside in the near future
since our days lately have been in the upper 60's and nights in the upper
50's.

Many of the seeds I've started--for example sunflowers--do very well
initially and then fall over when they reach medium hight. Sometimes this
is caused by damping off disease, but many times it just seems that the
stemp can't support the weight of the leaves at the top.

In light of that, when I transplant the seeds, how deep can I bury the stem
in order to try and overcome this?

In other words, if the stem is 3" long, can I bury it so that only 1" is
above the ground initially, or will this kill the plant?

I know plants like tomatoes actually like to be buried in that fashion, but
I'm not sure of others.

Tony